Program Development Lifecycle

Program Development Life Cycle
The Program Development Life Cycle is a set of phases and steps that are followed by
developers to define, design, develop and maintain a computer program. Typical phases of
the life cycle are:
Gather and Analyze the Program Requirements: The developers must obtain the
program requirements from the users and document the requirements. Typically, a
standard form is used to develop the requirements.
Design the User Interface: After understanding the requirements, the next step is to
design the user interface. Typically a business information system consists of more than
one program it may have several forms, few reports, and other programs. The users
interface defines all the input forms, output reports, programs, and menu system to
organize all these objects.
Design the Program: A business function when implemented in a computer system is

termed as a program. Before a program is developed, it must be designed. Program
developers use tools such as pseudocode, flow chart, and hierarchy chart to design
programs.
Code the Program: After a program is designed, it is implemented. A program code is a

set of instructions developed by a programmer to carry out the business functionality in
a particular language such as VB, C#, Java, ASP, etc.
Test the Program: As the program is being coded, and after the code is completed it
must be tested to see that program is running properly and it produces required
outputs with appropriate input data.
Document the Program/System: As a program is being coded, and after the coding is
completed, the developers should document the program. Documenting a program
means writing down some instruction for the users, the purpose of the program, the
way it performs the tasks, the inputs and the outputs expected. Once each program or
sub-program is documented, it is necessary to create documentation for the whole
business information system.
Maintain the Program/System: After the programs are developed and documented, it
is placed into operation. During the operation, a program may fail to perform its
objective and it might be necessary to add new functionality to a program or system.
Changing program design, coding, and updating programs are part of maintenance.
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Gather and Analyze the Program Requirements

Many business information systems fail, or never been used, due to poor requirements for the
system to start with. If the business requirements are faulty, the design is going to be wrong,
and the implementation or coding is going to be of course faulty, and the system will not
perform its functionality. Thus it is important to gather information or requirements of a
program or system. First step is to gather requirements (typically by a business analyst) from the
business users through interviews, sending questionnaire, sampling existing documents and
programs, and any other fact-finding methods. The second step is to document the
requirements. Many companies use specific styles or tools to document the requirements.
Below is an example of a requirements document of a business process/program.
Designing the User Interface

A business information system typically consists of three layers: the
presentation layer, the processing layer, and the data layer as depicted
here. The presentation layer contains the objects that are interfaced by
the user such as forms, scanners, touch-screens, printouts, statements,
reports, etc. The processing layer consists of programs that are called by
these objects to perform the business processes required by the users.
The data layer contains data that are already stored in files or
databases or need to be stored. A user only sees the presentation layer
and so the name; the programming and data details are hidden from
the user. In earlier days, a programmer typically used to write codes, but
in todays business environments, a programmer needs to know about all three layers to
successfully develop an information system. When developing an information system using
Graphical User Interface (GUI), the Presentation Layer and the Processing Layer cannot be
separated rather, there is a design view and a code view and together they are termed as
the Top Layer. The file or database is termed as the Bottom Layer.
From the requirements documents, typically a systems analyst defines the various types of
inputs, outputs, programs, menus, files, and databases required for the system. Next step is to
define the details of data that go into each of these objects. For example, a set of data that
might go into a customer form might include customers last name, first name, address, city,
state, zip code, telephone number, e-mail address, etc. For a program, it might include the
steps in simple English language that the program must perform to achieve the business
objective. For a file or database, it is necessary to define the fields and types of data that
each field must store in a file or table of a database. The next step is to design each object.
Designing means how an object will looks like before it is being developed - just like an
architect shows design layouts of a building on papers before constructing with raw materials.
For an information system, we need to design forms, reports, programs, menus, files, tables,
etc. For a form or report, the design layout mean how form or report will look like, for a
program design, a programmer needs to show the steps of a business process that satisfies the
user requirements as well as facilitates the coding process. We will mainly focus on the
program design in this class.
A program typically takes inputs, performs some processing depending on business rules and
then produces some outputs. Designing a program means developing algorithms for these
functionalities. Commonly, three tools are available that facilitate the program design:
pseudocode, flowchart, and hierarchy chart.
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Program Development Lifecycle

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Program Development Lifecycle

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Program Development Life Cycle

Design the Program: A business function when implemented in a computer system is

Code the Program: After a program is designed, it is implemented. A program code is a

Gather and Analyze the Program Requirements

Designing the User Interface

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